Weekend in Chicago!

Chicago has been on our places to visit from last 3 years but unfortunately we have never been able to plan a trip to Chicago. This time in March, my hubby had to visit Groupon headquarters for work for 2 days and I decided to grab that opportunity to tag along and explore the beautiful city of sky scrappers :)

Chicago has lot of great things to-do but ours was a short trip, so we decided to explore some of the top ones :)

Before we get into the details, here are some fun facts about Chicago:

• Chicago is also called the Windy City.
• The ‘Historic Route 66’ begins in Chicago.
• The first Ferris Wheel made its debut in Chicago. Today, Navy Pier is home to a 15-story ferris wheel.
• The Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower) is the tallest building in the western hemisphere.
• The Willis tower elevators are amongst the fastest in the world operating as fast as 1600 feet per minute.
• Four states are visible from the top of the Willis Tower (Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin)
• Chicago’s downtown is called "The Loop"

After our quick research, we found buying Chicago Explorer Pass worth buying to see some of the attractions in Chicago. It gives you an option to choose 3, 4 or 5 attractions from a list of 25. For more details, visit their website here. We got it from Costco at 76$ per person. Turns out to be a great deal!

Hotel and Car rental: Unless you plan to do a road trip away from the city, you wont need a car. For hotels, I would definitely encourage you to stay close or in the loop (downtown). If you are in the downtown, you don’t really need any car rental. We mostly used Uber for our commute. It is pretty easy and convenient way to get around in the city. You could also use subway trains. 

At the subway station!

Day 1:  (Saturday)

• We started our day at the Fourth Presbyterian Church. A beautiful church across the famous John Hancock Center.

Same Church at night looks exceptionally beautiful!

• Hop-on Hop-off Big Bus Chicago tour: (Included in Chicago Explorer pass) This is the best way to explore the city as it is a guided tour and the guide walks you through the history and architecture along the route. We started from stop # 13 (The John Hancock Observatory and 360 Chicago)

Desi Boys ;)

Chicago darshan!

• Millennium Park. An absolute must visit while in Chicago. This park is an award-winning center for art, music, architecture, and landscape design. This is the place where you will see the world famous huge mercury drop called ‘The Bean’. It is also called the Cloud Gate. An Indian-born British artist named Anish Kapoor sculpts this bean. In its mirror-like surface, you will not only see your own reflection but also the downtown skyline. Give at least an hour to go around the park and see the sculptures in the park.  

The World famous Bean

urf Cloud Gate

• Navy Pier: You can’t visit Chicago without making a stop at Navy Pier for the incredible views of the skyline and hours of fun time. We also went in the Ferris wheel (Centennial Wheel - $15) from where you can see the stunning views of the entire city.

• 360 Chicago (Included in Chicago Explorer Pass): This is the observation deck of the famous John Hancock building. 360 Chicago provides unparalleled views of Chicago’s skylines and shorelines. We went to the 94th floor on a high-speed elevator to see the stunning panoramic night views of the entire city.  The observation deck is also a home of the thrilling and exhilarating TILT experience - an enclosed moving platform that literally tilts you out and over the edge at 30 degrees of the John Hancock building. (Not included in the explorer pass but it is just $8 per person) And believe me, it was an adrenaline rush experience!

         

Day 2: (Sunday)

• Sky Deck Chicago (Included in the explorer pass): Sky Deck Chicago is the observatory Deck of the world famous Willis tower (formerly known as Sears Tower). Be prepared to have a wait time of atleast 1 hour here. We arrived early in the morning but had to wait for an hour before we can get to the top of this building. The magnificent views of the city from the top (103rd floor) will make the wait all worth it. If you are brave enough, you can also step out on “The Ledge”, the all glass balcony that extends four feet from the building’s edge out into space.

From the Ledge!

• Chicago Architecture River Cruise: (Included in the explorer pass). Another one from the must-do’s in Chicago. Luckily, the weather was beautiful on the day of our visit. Cruise was led by professional guide who shared the dramatic story of Chicago's rise from the ashes of the Great Fire of 1871 to become the home of the skyscraper and the cradle of modern American architecture.

From the river cruise!

In love with the beautifully architected Sky scrappers of Chicago!

Must try restaurants in Chicago:

1  Giordano’s deep dish pizza

2   Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria

3   Grand Lux Café

4   Big Bowl

5   Eataly – Chicago

6   Goddess and the Baker

7   Xoco Mexican dinner

8   Garrett popcorn ;)

At Chicago's famous Giordano's :)

Some of the best food and desserts we tried in Chicago..

Cabo San Lucas, December 2016

Last month in december, California was starting to get chilly and both of us were so tired of our hectic work schedule during thanksgiving as we both work for the eCommerce giants! So we decided to slice out a custom long weekend and go to a nice warm beach destination. Beach vacations are our favorite :) We really wanted to go to Miami, Keywest but due to the Zika virus threat and super expensive ticket prices and lack of vacation days left we decided to go somewhere close. And Cabo San Lucas Mexico emerged to be our best choice.

San Jose Del Cabo Mexico is just a 3 hr flight from San Jose California.

Planning:

* Bought tickets on Alaska airlines, non stop flight. Got a steal deal with companion fare discount on our Alaska Credit Card.

* Booked Solmar Resort from Groupon Getaways. The resort is near lands end, walking distance to marina and very close to most of the attractions in Cabo San Lucas.

* No car rental since we wanted to avoid the hastle of driving and getting insurance internationally. Most of the attractions were close to our resort. 

* Taxi is cheap in mexico and always available to your hotel doorstep.

* Booked a shuttle to/from airport to resort from http://www.bestday.com.mx

Things to note:

* Visa - No visa is needed if you have a valid US visa already stamped on your passport (for Indians)

* Forex Cash - At least 200-300 Mex Pesos 

* Forex Card - Credit card with 0 fees on foreign transactions.

* Carry USD in cash about 200-300 USD. As most of the places happily accept USD.

* Ensure you carry some change in your wallet, you would need that for TIPS! where ever you go. We noticed mexico has a lot of tipping culture. 

* Lot of time-share guys will try to lure you to attend one of their presentations and offer you discount or free activities. Beware of them as its a waste of time and spoils your vacation time. Although they will offer you all kinds of lucrative offers!

Highlights of the trip:

Day 1:

* Fly from one San Jose to another ;) SJC ===> SJD

* Checked in to Solmar resort.

* Walked to the marina, took a glass bottom boat (pretty hyped!) to Medano beach.

* Had early sunset dinner at "The Office". Really a great location with amazing views and delicious food! 

* Strolled around the Medano beach, checked out a few vendors selling amazing handicrafts. Got a nice Tortuga (Turtle) souvenir for a dollar.

* The portion size in mexico is pretty large. We were so stuffed with the food, but our sweet tooth was still craving for desserts. So we found a really nice place called Senor Sweets and had some choc lava cake with strawberry icecream. Umm, It was delicioso!

* On the way back to our hotel, we had some amazing flavored tequila tasting in one of the local shops.

On the glass bottom boat

Dinner at "The Office"

Day 2:

* Breakfast at Villa Del Palmar on the Medano beach.

* Walked on the Medano beach, where I got my hair braided by one of the local vendors on the beach.

* Spotted a few open air beach massage cabanas and added that to our list for the next day :) 

* Had lunch at Tabasco Restaurant on the beach. Amazing chicken tacos and shrimp cocktail. Slurp!

* Post lunch, we had our ATV ride planned at the Wild Canyons theme park. 

* The ATV ride was one of the wild attractions for 2016 for both of us. It started with full of fun initially and then moved on to an adventure ride!

* By the time we returned, it was already evening. We went to the resort's jacuzzi and had drinks and dinner at the Tejban hotel in the resort which was also hosting a Mexican festival on that night.

The Wild Canyons adventure on the ATV!

Day 3:

* Breakfast at Solomon's landing at the marina. Had their veggie omelette and cafe mocha!

* Did some mandatory hat shopping at the marina. We found really nice hats for both of us for just 20 bucks!

* We did the Snorkeling cruise in the afternoon that included authentic mexican lunch, unlimited drinks and dance at the cruise with Cabo Escape. 

* After the cruise, we went back to the Medano beach to get the Massage on the beach experience at one of the cabanas. Will go back again for this !!!

* I wanted to have some non-mexican dinner that night and we stopped by at Wicked Pizza after looking at their yelp reviews. That was the biggest mistake we made :( When in mexico, eat only mexican! 

* Unsatisfied from the Pizza place, we strolled around the city and came across some amazing-looking mexican food joints on the way to our hotel. We stopped for desserts at Las Guacamayas, Authentic mexican restaurant and very reasonable prices. I wish we came here for dinner.

Day 4:

* Breakfast at Mamma's Cafe. Must say it was mouth watering breakfast! Mexican chilaquiles & French Toast. Must visit place while in Cabo! 

* After breakkie, we took the much hyped Glass bottom boat to the most awaited trip to the Lover's beach. While on Gbb, we saw the Arch (which is locally know as El Arco and is extremely scenic and is a gathering spot for sea lions), the window to the pacific ocean (this is where the sea of cortez meets the pacific ocean) and an amazing snorkeling spot while on the Gbb. I wish we had known that earlier. But, next time! We got down at the lover's beach, strolled around and the other side of the lover's beach was the divorce beach. We did spend some time on both sides of the beaches.

At the lover's beach

PS: Please feel free to read my yelp reviews of all the places we have been to in Cabo  - https://www.yelp.com/list/cabo-san-lucas-mexico-cabo-san-lucas-2

Bangkok and Phuket Family Trip

This year in February 2016 we planned our trip to India. This was our 'first trip' to India after getting married :) Recently I have discovered a new habit in me, which is to find 'the first time' in everything we do. If its the first time, its special, so a blog post worthy :) Also, this being our first family vacation, I wanted to write about it. Without further ado, lets quickly get to our 6 day Bangkok and Phuket trip. 

Things to keep in mind before planning a trip to Thailand:

Visa on arrival: Make sure you have 1000 Thai Baht cash/person and passport sized (4x6 cm) photograph with you as you land at the airport. Keep your passport and other travel documents and the return tickets as well as hotel accommodation print outs with you as you might need to present them to get your visa on arrival.  Don’t forget to take a pen and a glue stick with you J You might be able to get that around but no harm carrying these with you.

Forex card: We had got Axis bank’s Travel Currency Card so that we do not have to carry any cash around the city, we would withdraw money as per need every couple of days and avoid carrying any bulk cash with us - http://www.axisbank.com/personal/forex/travel-currency-card/overview.aspx

Misc: Beware of pickpocketing in Thailand.

 

At the airport and in the flight! All set for vacationing :)

Day 1 – Feb 11^th 2016 – Bangkok

* Landed at Suvarnabhumi International Airport and took us around 1 and ½ hours to get our visas.

* We went to our AirBnB and immediately left for city tour with Lou-Lou. Before leaving she told us that Orange was the color of the day and coincidently most of us were dressed in orange color J After looking up online, I found that in Thai tradition, there is an astrological rule that assigns color for each day of the week. The color is assigned based on the color of the God who protects the day. Details - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_the_day_in_Thailand

* We took the City Tour with http://www.tourwithtong.com/ company. We were a group of 6 people, so we took their VIP van option. It was only 4000 THB for a full day guide for 8 hours + admission, food, parking fees etc extra on the top. They have a dress code at most of the temples in BKK. Details can be found here: http://www.tourwithtong.com/tourtips.htm

The places that we visited are:

* The Grand Palace

* Temple of Emerald Buddha

* Wat Po

* Wat Arun

* Reclining Buddha

* River Cruise

Day 2 – Feb 12^th 2016 - Bangkok

We visited the Bangkok Safari World on our second day. We watched fascinating animals shows in the Safari World:

* Orangutan Show

* Dolphin Show

* Seal Show

* Feeding Tiger Cubs

* Hugging Orangutan

* Elephant Feeding

* Giraffe Feeding

* Elephant Show

* Elephant Massage - Manoj was very thrilled for getting the elephant massage and luckily in the elephant show when they called for volunteers he was picked from the crowd J I was very nervous during the actual scene and my hands were shivering while taking his video at that time.  

After the shows, we went to an open safari in our closed van where we saw the wild animals which were set free.

Later that evening we went to eat some local food and explore the city.

* Street Food @ Kao San Road - Pad Thai & Spicy Tom Kha Shrimp Soup

* Tuk Tuk Ride - A tuk tuk is a three-wheeled colorful rickshaw. Riding a tuk-tuk is more of an experience rather than a practical way to get around in BKK.

* Waiting for Bus at a bus-stand – A hopeful Bus ride that turned into Taxi hunt & finally back to hotel – Beware of the taxi drivers that are are waiting to loot you ;) We found the pink cab drivers to be friendly and fair while charging us for our ride.

Day 3 – Feb 13^th 2016 - BKK

* We went to Chatuchak Market for shopping. It is one of the World’s largest markets that has more than 15,000 booths selling goods from every part of Thailand. It is a very popular place for tourists and has over 200,000 visitors each day.

* After shopping till we dropped, we took foot massage which felt like we were in heaven and didn’t want to get up from the recliners.

* To experience the public transport, we took a train to Bangkok Airport for our Phuket Flight. We reached our Phuket Airbnb around 10 pm at night and went to bed after the long day.

Day 4 - Feb 14^th 2016 - Phuket

* The first thing we did in the morning was to go out and get the Bike Rental. It is the best way to explore the city.

* We then spend our valentines's day at the Patong Beach. We enjoyed the Jet ski at the Patong Beach.

* In the evening we went to Phuket FantaSea which is one of Phuket’s main tourist’s attraction. It is a huge theme park with a huge stage show, a huge buffet, restaurants and plenty of shops to tempt people into spending more than just the entry fee. There are a lots of local artists who will attract you with their amazing artistry.

Day 5 - Feb 15^th 2016 - Phuket 

We did an Island Tour on this day.

* Monkey Island

* Maya Bay

* Krabi

* Snorkelling 

* Feeding the Fish

Day 6 - Feb 16^th 2016 - Phuket 

We did a full day Bike Tour of Phuket on our last day of vacation. We went to several places around the city. Few of them are:

* Big Budha

* Lunch at Mountain Restaurant

* And concluded our vacation at Patong Beach with an exotic Thai Massage on the Beach!

Instead of pictures I decided to share a short video of our Thailand trip:

Baking for charity!

April is a very special month for my blog! Yes, its my blogs' anniversary month. Although I blogged very little this year, I promise to compensate in the following year :)

Since this month I am celebrating my blogs' second anniversary, I wanted to do something special. Special by spreading happiness and seeking inspirations. Manoj and I had some conversations about it and we thought it would be a great idea to bake for charity:-) As soon as we posted this on Facebook, a lot of people reached out to us to know more about it and to know how it works?

First of all let me thank everyone who reached out to us for ordering cakes and those who sent their inspirational words through messages and emails. This would not have been possible without you and your support.

This post summarizes what "Baking for Charity" is all about.

It is a simple 3-step process:

1. You fill this form to order your cake for your special occasion - Online Cake Order Form

2. You decide the amount you feel comfortable to pay for the cake.

3. You visit our fundraiser page to donate that amount to your favorite charity - https://www.justgive.org/manojaya 

* If you prefer donating to any other charity thats not listed on the above link, please feel free to reach out and I can add it to our list.

PS: We are now raising funds for Asha For Education exclusively, please donate on this link - Asha For Education

We make you happy by giving our 100% in baking the best cake possible as per your needs and you make someone else happy by donating your money towards a noble cause that you care about. This way we are spreading happiness and paying it forward :-)

Please do share your thoughts/reviews in the comments below. 

Also do read my post "Pay It Forward" to know the story behind how we came up with this idea - Pay It Forward

Here are few pictures of the cakes that we have baked for various occasions! Hope you will love them!

Mango flavored Minion cake!
No bake mango cheese cake
	Photo cup cakes for all the scorpions on the house!
Dora themed happy birthday cake!
Jungle theme cupcakes!
	25th birthday Birthday cake
Tiramisu - my personal favorite	Another hit - No bake Ice cream cake
Cake for a special friend
Baby shower Tres Leches cake	Mango cake
Special 30th fashionista cake	Princess cake
Eggless Tiramisu baby shower cake	Photo cake
Independence day housewarming party special cake
	6 month birthday red velvet cake
M&M's cake
Mango mousse with lots of mango!	Surprise cake in the making With M&M's hidden in the cake ;)
Chocolate cake
Fire phone theme cake for the engineer!
Eggless Butterless orange cake!	Bananaanana chocolate minion cake!